New report suggests third-party Switch 2 game sales are "below estimates"
New report suggests third-party Switch 2 game sales are "below estimates"
www.gamesindustry.biz
New report suggests third-party Switch 2 game sales are "below estimates"
30 comments
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Not surprising considering that most 3rd party games are:
- Ports of old games so anyone who has a PS5/Xbox/PC can get them for cheaper.
- Overpriced ports as well, and in a system that is already rather expensive.
- Game Key Cards which won't appeal to collectors who could still buy them despite #1 and #2.
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They should have accounted for old games in their estimates though.
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Switch 2 had a wider selection, with 13 physical games available at launch.
Many gamers do not count game key-cards as physical games. Just another version of code in a box. Cyberpunk is probably only actual physical 3rd party release on switch.
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Looking at this list of 3rd party games, I wonder if the reason for this is that most of these games have been available on other platforms already for quite some time. If you were interested in e.g. Hades 2, unless you just didn't have a PC available, you probably weren't waiting for an at-the-time unannounced Switch 2 to play it on. Heck, Cyberpunk is 5 years old at this point. Street Fighter 6 is 2 years old and was on a lot of other platforms.
I expect we might see different results when we see more 3rd party games getting simultaneous launch on Switch 2 and other platforms.
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A lot of players and local venues prefer PS4, PS5 and PC for fighting games. If you have licensed PS4/PS5 arcade stick it should work on all three of these platforms. Unlicensed ones might not work with PS5 games. Switch is mostly just for melee.
That being said game key-cards seem largely inferior to physical versions on other platforms even if you likely have to patch most games these days anyways.
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Wouldn't have expected anything else. The two types of people I've mostly seen buying the Switch 2 are those who are really into Mario Kart and those who are into Pokemon, for the extra frame rate.
Neither of these groups is known for buying 3rd party games - at least not the ones I know.
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those who are into Pokemon, for the extra frame rate
Not just Pokemon, I am sure there are many who where hoping for Switch Pro before Nintendo crushed their hopes and dreams with Switch OLED. People have been testing Switch 1 games on Switch 2 and most of them seem to run on very stable frame-rate on Switch even without an upgrade pack.
This will lead to stronger console sales but not necessarily to game sales at least not in the short run.
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There's a high proportion of those two groups that plays third party on PC or even a steam deck. The Switch is just the current Nintendo machine.
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I have mario games and that is it for switch. Ill wait until the piracy is strong to jump in on swotch two games.
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Yup! 🙋♂️ I'm only here (having a Switch 2) for the frame rate bump (which I thought I'd get from buying the Switch 2019, or the Switch OLED), as well as the GameCube games and future Mario and Zelda games. Nothing else.
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It's really too early to extract much of anything out of this.
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It's too early to draw any conclusions. Take it from Mat Piscatella, who's forgotten more about video game market research than I ever learned myself.
Hardware launches are not like game releases, anyway. It's the establishment of a new product market, and early game releases on consoles have an ebb and flow to them that later blockbusters do not. It's about building growth, not first-week sales.
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It will be valuable information when we have more data points to compare it against later. The console's high initial sales may very well have little to do with anything except how many Nintendo had available, for instance. It could do Wii U numbers (unlikely), or it could be a mega success, or anything in between. The third party sales might be reflective of the fact that the games are all older and available on other platforms, or it could be that customers are strapped for cash after a higher console purchase price, or any of a number of other reasons. I would just encourage people not to make a narrative out of this yet.
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"Am I charging too much? No, it's the customers who are wrong!"
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I went to my local shop’s website. The first game listed is Split Fiction for $70. The game doesn’t even have a cartridge. It’s literally a download code in the box. The PS5/Xbox versions are $65 and are on physical disc.
Who in their right mind is buying this? $70 for a Hogwart’s Legacy game key card? PS5 is $50 new. PS4 is $30.
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Who in their right mind is buying this?
People who don't want to spend $500 on a PS5 to save $20 on a game.
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There are 3rd party Switch 2 games? 🤔 I thought it was all 3rd party ports of Switch 1 games...
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Most of the third-party titles are yesterday’s games, as already mentioned, and the newer ones are still in development. Meaning, Nintendo’s games are pretty much doing all the heavy lifting. And given the price versus buying power ratio for some games, the launch comes off as a bit mid, to say the least.
Hopefully things will improve in the future.
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Wonder how it'd be if they didn't include a cheaper Mario Kart bundle, as well. I had many people arguing with me that the price of MKW wasn't $80 because of the bundle.
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I mean, main reason I got mine was to play the games I couldn't stomach at switch 1 performance. Until duskbloods comes out, anyway.
Also, since I had a first gen switch 1, I was finally able to hack it without worrying about losing online functionality, so now it's a nice emulation handheld.
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Give me OLED or give me death.
30 comments